An airline or other large commercial or non-commercial enterprise typically requires the coordinated efforts of many different functional groups. Generally, each of the different groups is responsible for managing a different part of the enterprise. A typical airline, for example, can include different functional groups for managing flight operations, aircraft maintenance, passenger services, and other aspects of the business necessary for day-to-day operations. The efficiency with which these different functional groups cooperate to run the airline can have a direct effect on the profitability and, ultimately, the success of the airline in a competitive marketplace.
Conventional methods for modeling the complex operations of airlines and other large enterprises typically include process flow charts and other types of schematic diagrams that attempt to illustrate the inter-workings of the different functional groups. Although these methods may illustrate some functional relationships at a relatively high level, they are of limited value in analyzing process interactions because they typically lack detailed information about the various attributes (e.g., cost, time, etc.) associated with each process. Further, these methods also tend to lack a detailed description of the routing and sequencing of information flows between the different functional groups. As a result, such methods offer little assistance in identifying problem areas and assessing the impact of changes to a particular process.
One problem facing companies that produce and market such products and services is how to justify the investment in the product or service to the airline operator. That is, how best to make the business case to the potential customer. A typical marketing approach is to “demo” the product or service using a fictitious business model. The downside of this approach, however, is that the fictitious model may or may not be a realistic simulation of the actual airline. As a result, the airline operator may have a hard time visualizing and understanding the benefits of the product or service, and may remain unconvinced of the value to their airline.
Proving the value of goods and services is particularly difficult where the business case depends on assessing the impact of a product or service on airline flight schedules. For example, in marketing products or services to airline customers that are intended to reduce the impact of disrupted airline flight schedules, is important to provide the customer with a demonstration showing the benefits of the product or service being marketed. In the past, this demonstration has been limited to generating simple data showing how the product or service can reduce the impact of disruptions on a single facet of airline operations such as congestion at a particular airport during a specific time interval, or the availability of gates for a particular aircraft. The value of such demonstration data is limited in its marketing impact since it does not give the customer a total view of the effect on all of the customer's flight operations and aircraft.
Complicating the problem of providing a complete overview of the impact of a product on disrupted flight schedules is the fact that a single initial disruption in an airline schedule can result in a delay which is propagated throughout the customer's flight schedule, resulting in numerous additional delays and related operations problems for multiple legs of the flight schedule. Adding to the difficulty of predicting the effects of flight disruptions is the problem of predicting the severity of propagated flight disruptions. Thus, without a method for providing the customer with a visualized demonstration of a proposed product showing overall impact on all aspects of flight operations, it is difficult to build an economic case to support use of the product.
Accordingly, there is a need for a method of visualizing the effects of a product intended to reduce the adverse impact of disruptions in flight schedules, which overcomes the deficiencies discussed above. The present invention is directed toward satisfying this need.